The stage is set for one final act of retribution. Chris Huhne, according to
close friends, will use his last day of freedom to brand his ex-wife a liar.

On Monday Huhne and Vicky Pryce, to whom he was married for 26 years, will spend a final afternoon together in the dock at Southwark Crown Court for sentencing. Both are likely to be sent to jail.

Huhne will take the opportunity to try to get in the last word. In mitigation, if all goes according to plan, he will accuse Pryce of lying over her claims - made during her trial - that he forced her to have one abortion and tried to make her have another.

The close friend told The Sunday Telegraph: “Vicky Pryce told all sorts of lies about him in the witness box. He will refute the abortion claim. That is the plan. He wants to use the mitigation to address the accusations made against him during the trial.”

Huhne, 58, has until now been unable to defend himself against the accusations levelled against him by Pryce. By pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice, he has never given any evidence in court.

But Pryce, 60, denied the charge - and as a result gave damning testimony in court over two trials.

She insisted she was bullied into taking her husband’s points for speeding in 2003 and to back up her claim, she alleged that Huhne had made her have one abortion. She had refused his demands to terminate another pregnancy, leading to the birth of their youngest son Peter.

Peter Huhne, 20, has also turned against his father, his hatred made public in a series of text messages made public during the court case.

The family was torn apart by Huhne’s affair with his press aide Carina Trimingham, who herself was in a civil partnership.

But the friend said Pryce had painted a false picture by suggesting it was a happy marriage which had suddenly collapsed because of Huhne’s affair.

With his secret romance with Miss Trimingham about to be revealed by a tabloid newspaper, Huhne told his wife he was leaving her as she watched a World Cup football match in 2010.

Huhne and Miss Trimingham have let close acquaintances know that the marriage was already troubled.

Huhne’s friend said: “The idea that Chris comes in and ends the marriage while she is watching the World Cup is nonsense. It was already at the beginning of the end.

“How can she claim they were in a happy marriage for 25 years and at the same time claim he had made her have an abortion. They were not happily married. They weren’t even sleeping in the same bedroom.

“From Vicky’s own description it is a pretty horrendous relationship. I am surprised she didn’t get the champagne out and say 'thank god I have got rid of you after all these years’. Instead she took out revenge and look where she’s ended up.”

The friend said the series of texts between Huhne and his son had shown him to be a 'loving father’ while the friend questioned how nurturing Pryce can be if she was prepared to allow her children’s father to go to jail.

“It is humiliating for the children to see their father and mother go to jail,” said the friend, “How can that be an advantage for your children to watch their father go to jail?”

In mitigation - to try to get the sentence reduced - Huhne’s barrister will point out that his client has now lost almost everything. The case has cost him hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal costs, his political career and, even worse, his relationship with his children.

Despite it all, claimed the friend, Huhne is relieved his ordeal is over. “He is pleased that after Monday he will in all probability never have to see her again,” said the friend.

Monday’s hearing may not be the end of the saga and there may still be further political ramifications. Pressure is building on Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, to give full details of his meetings with Pryce in the run-up to the scandal breaking. Pryce wrote in emails to a journalist that she had told Mr Cable and other senior Lib Dems that she had taken points for Huhne.

If true, it would mean Mr Cable had known about the crime but not told authorities about it.

Mr Cable has denied the claims that he ever knew about the speeding points until it was made public in newspapers in 2011.

However, one senior Coalition source said that the Business Secretary and Miss Pryce were “clearly extremely close” and that she visited him “very often” at his department, where she worked as a senior civil servant until announcing her resignation in April 2010.

“She held regular meetings with Vince [Cable],” said a senior Coalition source. “At times they were weekly. These weren’t necessarily one-to-one meetings, but she was always coming into the department.”

A spokeswoman for Mr Cable said: “Vicky Pryce was Director General of Economics at the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills and joint head of the Government Economic Service until 31 August 2010. As such, she and the Secretary of State met regularly on issues relating to the Government’s economic priorities. We do not hold central records of such internal meetings.”

The spokeswoman said further meetings with Mr Cable and officials were held after she left office as well.

Yesterday, Huhne received words of support from Nick Clegg. Speaking at the Liberal Democrat spring conference in Brighton, the Deputy Prime Minister described his former colleague as an “effective” and “outstanding” politician.

Mr Clegg said: “Whatever is going on with Chris and Vicky... not only was he an outstanding local constituency MP he was also an extremely powerful thinker and indeed an very effective secretary of state.”